Love, Lies, and Deception(30)
I was surprised I was even hungry with the nerves in my stomach flip flopping out of control. In just an hour’s time I was going to be watching whoever drugged me in the video surveillance. What if it was someone I know?
To wake up, I took a quick shower and towel dried my hair. Rummaging through my closet, I picked a long sleeve shirt to hide the bruises from my fall, and put my hair up in a ponytail.
“Are you ready to go?” my sister asked, peeking her head into my room.
“As I’ll ever be,” I replied, wishing the day was already over. I was ready to get it done and see what evil person spiked my drink. Emily spent the night at Justin’s again, and promised to meet me, my sister, and Alec at the police station first thing.
I grabbed my purse, cell phone, and a bottle of water from the refrigerator before following my sister out the door. I locked up, and once we were down on Alec’s floor he was already waiting on me.
“Perfect timing,” I pointed out, grinning.
Smiling, he wrapped me in his arms and kissed me gently on the lips. “Let’s go and get this over with. Hopefully, someone will be able to recognize the girl who did it.”
“I sure hope so.”
We all three piled into my sister’s van and headed to the police station. When we pulled into the parking lot, I saw Emily, Justin, and Kristian waiting on the front steps. Alec got out of the car and held my hand as we walked into the station.
It was just as I remembered it from when I came after my attack two years prior; the same blue upholstered chairs sat in the corners, and the walls were starkly white, almost blinding. I could smell the hint of cigarette smoke. Even though it had been banned in the building for however many long years, the scent was still there.
Detective Michaels was the one who took my case when I was attacked on campus, and he was the one helping me with the new case. He was a man who looked to be in his mid-forties with short brown hair that was starting to gray on both sides, and also growing thinner in the back.
I could tell his job was stressful by the weariness in his eyes, and I couldn’t imagine seeing and dealing with the types of things he dealt with on a daily basis. When he saw me enter through the door, he marched right up to me and wrapped me in a bear hug. That’s what he reminded me of … a huge teddy bear.
“You just don’t know how to stay out of trouble, do you?” he asked, forcing a laugh.
“Obviously not,” I muttered. “At least I was given a two year break.”
“Still, young lady, these things shouldn’t be happening to you or to anyone for that matter.” He half-smiled at me and moved on to talk to my sister.
“What’s he talking about?” Alec whispered in my ear. “What happened two years ago?”
Sighing, I looked up at him and whispered back, “I was attacked on campus one night after leaving one of my study groups. Thankfully, nothing bad happened except some bruises, but if Kristian hadn’t shown up and help me I don’t know what would’ve happened. It’s how him and I became such good friends.”
“Well, I’m glad he was there.”
“I’ll always be there for her,” Kristian cut in, coming up to my side.
Alec lifted an eyebrow at me, but I waved him off. Detective Michaels was making his way around the group and shook hands with everyone before leading us down the hallway to the conference room. When he opened the door, there was already a screen set up on display.
“Everyone, take a seat and we’ll start,” the detective ordered, gesturing to the seats.
The large rectangular table could seat about twenty people, but I sat in between Alec and my sister while Emily, Justin, and Kristian sat on the opposite side. Once we were all settled, the detective began the commentary. The video started to play, and it showed Alec standing at the bar and ordering our drinks. Both drinks were made and set in front of him and the money was transferred to the bartender.
Detective Michaels paused the film. “Okay, this is where things start. Tell me if you recognize the blonde-headed female that approaches Mr. Holden, and also the other blonde that you will see visibly contaminating the drink.”
The video played again and I saw the leggy blonde in the short skirt putting her arms around Alec. I guess I could understand why Alec didn’t like any other men touching me. I was livid watching that slut put her hands on him. I could feel Kristian’s gaze on me from across the table, but I kept my expression blank knowing he was trying to gauge my reaction.
One thing was definitely for sure, I didn’t recognize the girl on the video.
“Do any of you recognize her?” the detective asked, pausing the video. We all shook our heads as a reply. He sighed and resumed the video. “Okay, so you’ll notice here, Mr. Holden turns his head for a second and in comes blonde suspect number two. As you can see, we don’t have a good visual of her face, but you’ll notice what she does … watch.”
As Alec and I were kissing at the bar, the girl dropped the pill in my drink and hurriedly sauntered off. I remembered the other girl huffing and scampering off when I put the moves on Alec in front of her, but I had no clue there was someone behind us.
“Were they working together?” I asked curiously. “I still don’t understand why they would’ve spiked my drink.”
Detective Michaels turned off the video and took a seat. “We think they were put up to it by someone, but they left the bar together and were never seen with anyone else. We’ll investigate further, except as of right now we have nothing to go on. I’ll keep you posted on what we find, but for now, just be careful. You have a habit of getting yourself into trouble.”